"So let me make sure this is clear."

The Hunter paces the clinic, the floorboards creaking and groaning. The seeds of a migraine are roaring their ugly heads, and the Hunter breathes deeply, willing himself calm.

"You attacked Eileen the Crow-a friend and ally, by the way-"

"There were extenuating circumstances!" Maria interrupts.

"Not the point. So, you ran into Old Yharnam, and found..."

"Your body," Maria confirms.

"My body," the Hunter repeats.

"I think I have a hypothesis," The Other Hunter interjects. The others stare at him.

The Other Hunter barrels on. "Like Lady Maria explained to me, when one becomes a Hunter, they leave their old body behind. Upon ending the hunt they return to their body and forget everything.

This is because my body and brain did not experience the hunt, therefore did not make those memories."

The others wait for him to continue. "Normally, Old Yharnam is inaccessible due to ruin. For humans and beasts, that is. Not for a Pthumerian Princess."

"Cainhurstian Noble," Maria corrects indignantly.

"My body was woken while he-" The Other Hunter points to the Hunter. "-Was still gone."

The Hunter looks thoughtful. "Micolash had said something about waking up with no memories... I had dismissed it as the ramblings of a dying madman, but it seems there was some truth to it."

"So now what?" Maria asks.

The Hunter shrugs. "We let him be. I don't need his-er, my- well, our body. He can have it." The Hunter looks at Maria, his face unreadable. He raises his eyebrows, the jerks his head to the Other Hunter, and holds the Doll's hand. The Implication is clear.

Well? Now we don't have to choose.

The Hunter clears his throat. "Maria, why don't you take our handsome, intelligent friend here and show him the dream? He needs to be armed." He winks.

"Ah, no thank you," The Other Hunter interrupts. "I am a man of science, not violence." The others look at him incredulously.

"No," the Hunter says slowly. "We love violence."

The Other Hunter shakes his head. "Upon becoming a hunter, you lost all memories of your former life, including our four years at Byrgenwerth. It's only natural that your amnesiac mind would take to violence in this crisis."

"Byrgenwerth?!" Maria breathes.

"Wait," the Hunter says. "Maria, What's Byrgenwerth?"

"A college created by the greatest mind in history," Maria replies. "Provost Willem. Half the amount of insight he gained would drive any man mad, yet he is still alive and sane, last I heard. My aunt Annalise was declined entry despite scoring in the ninety-ninth percentile. They denied Her. The Queen!"

The mention of Annalise makes the Hunter shudder. For a time he had become addicted to her royal blood, and she would only offer it in exchange for blood dregs, leeched from invaders. She used them to attempt to conceive and heir, though he knew not how. Although, given the viscosity and squid-like smell, he could hazard a guess.

Suddenly, the Doll attempts to speak for the first time since waking. Unused to a body of flesh and blood, she struggles to move, even speaking a chore, her Czech-like accent even more pronounced. So... This Other is truly... Nothing like My Hunter?"

The Other Hunter clicks his tongue. "I wouldn't go that far. We do have quite a few similarities." He mimes writing on a checklist. "Let's see... Incredible hair..."

"Check," the Hunter chimes in.

"A stunning smile..."

"Check."

"Devilishly handsome..."

"Check."

"A perfectly sculpted body..."

"Check."

"And incredibly large genitals." The two men look to the two women for affirmation.

They roll their eyes. "Check," they say in monotonous unison.

The Other Hunter snaps his imaginary journal shut. "I daresay we are equally perfect."

The Hunter drapes an arm around his shoulder. "Indisputably, my old bait."

"It's Indubitably and chum."

"Indisputably works too. And chum is bait!"

"How am I supposed to know what you're talking about?"

"You speak english, don't you? And you're me! A Me should know what I mean."

"It's you and I."

"What is?"

"You are!"

"I'm talking about me, not me! I mean, you. But you're me, and a me should know what I mean!"

"Don't get angry with me because you're a simpleton!"

"I don't weigh that much, simple or not, you cretin!"

"Well, if I'm a cretin, then what does that make you? Cre-aluminum?"

"I can feel my alumin fine, It's not numb at all!"

The Doll turns to Maria and Iosefka. "I have had about as much as I can stomach. Tea?"

The others nod their assent, the Hunters' squabbling fading as they head towards the clinic's kitchenette.

Iosefka prepares the tea as Maria bring chairs down from storage. The Doll refrains from moving, still having difficulty walking in this new body.

Once the three are sat and settled, they let out a sigh. The past half-dozen hours were arguably the most stressful and important of their lives.

"So..." Maria starts. "It appears we have nothing to fight over any more."

The Doll scoffs. "Do not expect me to be anything more than cordial to you."

"I didn't," Maria replies. "And what of you? Are you not scared?"

"Of what?" The Doll tilts her head.

"The pregnancy," Maria replies.

"Ah... I... Do not know how to feel. I have used your body before, but without your influence it's much harder to control. It feels... Different. And to have a child this soon... I think we are both in shock. It hasn't even sunk in for the Good Hunter..."

Maria listens quietly. She had been so caught up in the pregnancy that she hadn't even thought about what would happen when it was born. Would it be right to raise it in a barren city like Yharnam? To have the child hide in fear each year during the hunt?

Maria measures her words carefully, afraid of angering the Doll. "Well, in a way, he or she has four parents." The Doll looks up at her as the huntress continues.

"All of our bodies are the same, so the child will... Well, it won't be ours, however..." She sighs frustratedly, deciding to put it bluntly.

"The child will have four people who care for it dearly. So there isn't anything to worry about. If things get difficult, then we can help. Twice the carers, half the work, no?"

The Doll stares at her blankly for a moment. Then, slowly, her mouth turns up into a radiant smile. She pulls Maria into a gentle embrace as tears run down her cheeks.

And for the first time, they are not stone.